Today in our “How to” series we’re featuring how you can put together a cheerful bouquet, with sunflowers, peonies and roses. I’d recommend heading down to your grocery store to keep it super simple and on budget. Here’s what to look for:
- Foliage
- Focal flowers
- Accent flowers
When choosing flowers, think about your colour scheme. You could either choose flowers in varying shades of this colour or you could mix it up with some contrasting brights. Get your creative juices flowing! Always buy more than you think you need. This way when you get home and arrange the bouquet, you can see what works and what doesn’t from your selection. Ensure the flowers are in good condition, don’t buy flowers that are browning around the petals, or look sad and droopy.
You’ll also need tape (floral tape is of course the best, and can be sourced from your local florist) or even twine could work, ribbon of your choice and scissors.
Today we went for a very simple but cheery selection of flowers. I couldn’t go past the sunflowers, and the peonies were just heavenly. The delicate wax made for a perfect accent flower, and the spray roses added a touch of elegance. The foliage was foraged from my parent’s yard.
Here’s how we did it…
Step 1: First clean the stems of your flowers, removing all leaves. These will only get in the way of arranging the bouquet.
Step 2: Start with the foundation of your bouquet with foliage. I used some leaves that I found from a tree in my parent’s backyard. Build the shape by fanning out the foliage so it forms an even shape.
Step 3: Add the focal flowers. You can use as many as you like. Since we were using a sunflower in this bouquet, we used the fluffy pink peonies to frame it. When adding the focal blooms take a step back to ensure that the bouquet is retaining its balanced shape, but keep it slightly asymmetrical to avoid creating a tight look.
Step 4: Add the accent flowers. I used spray roses and wax. These will help to add height to your bouquet.
Step 5: Trim your stems as evenly as possible. I love long stemmed bouquets, but for this one we kept it quite short.
Step 6: Wrap the stem with floral tape just at the base of the flowers. Ensure that you don’t bind the tape too close to the flowers or too tightly as it will compromise the natural shape of the bouquet.
Step 7: Tie a ribbon of your choice around the floral tape and create a simple bow.
*TIP: Always view the bouquet from afar at each step to see how the shape is forming. You’ll be able to see where the balance is off and then insert a flower to fill up the space. You can either hold the bouquet in front of you and take a look in the mirror, or have someone else hold it for you and take a step back to look at it. Most importantly, let your creative juices flow and don’t be afraid to be bold in your choice of flowers.
Photography: Subhi Bora
Flowers: Sourced from Coles
This post was originally featured on our partner site The Modest Bride.
